Translation of SOPs, booklets, checklist: Delhi High Court’s guidelines on missing children cases

The Delhi High Court has issued a slew of guidelines to reinforce standard operating procedures for police in cases related to missing children, the Bar and Bench reported on Monday.

Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma was hearing a case filed by the father of a 16-year-old girl who had gone missing in July but was found the same month. The court was told that the girl had left her home of her own free will after she had developed some misunderstandings with her parents.

The petitioner, however, said that she was found after a delay of 17 days due to the alleged negligence of the police. He urged the court to direct the authorities to follow the standard operating procedure for cases of missing children issued by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2016.

The court said that the guidelines were needed for the benefit of investigating officers who face challenges in missing children cases. It remarked that “children, being the most valuable treasures of an ‘emergent dynamic Bharat’, deserve the best and safest environment”.

Justice Sharma said that the standard protocols and the standing orders should be translated into languages widely spoken in Delhi, including Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, so that the police can clearly understand them.

He also directed...

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